'I am the shooter,' Hasan tells Fort Hood court-martial

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- The Army psychiatrist
charged with killing 13 comrades and wounding more than 30 delivered his
own opening statement in his court-martial Tuesday, declaring, "I am
the shooter."

Maj. Nidal Hasan is
charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted
murder in the 2009 massacre at Ford Hood, Texas. Testimony in his
long-delayed court-martial began Tuesday morning at the post, the
largest U.S. Army installation.

"The evidence will
clearly show that I am the shooter," Hasan told the panel that will
decide his fate. "The evidence presented with this trial will show one
side. The evidence will also show that I was on the wrong side. I then
switched sides."

Hasan, a U.S.-born
citizen of Palestinian descent, had been scheduled to deploy to
Afghanistan before the killings. He is charged with opening fire on
fellow soldiers in a processing center where they were preparing to ship
out for Afghanistan and Iraq.

Prosecutors hope to show
that the devout Muslim had undergone a "progressive radicalization,"
giving presentations in defense of suicide bombings and about soldiers
conflicted between military service and their religion when such
conflicts result in crime.

Hasan told the panel, "We
mujahedeen are trying to establish the perfect religion." But, he
added, "I apologize for the mistakes I made in this endeavor."

Hasan told his family he
had been taunted after the al Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001.
Investigations that followed the killings found he had been
communicating via e-mail with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American
radical cleric killed by a U.S. drone attack in 2011.

A military judge, Col.
Tara Osborn, ruled last week that the prosecution can introduce evidence
of Hasan's Internet searches on jihad and the Taliban in the days and
hours before the rampage, but has deferred a ruling on whether they can
introduce other materials.

Among the witnesses
prosecutors are expected to present will be Chief Warrant Officer
Christopher Royal, who survived the shootings with two bullet wounds to
his back. The slugs left him with nerve damage that numbs his left arm
and leg and sends streaking pains "shooting up and down my back."

It's also left invisible
scars as well -- post-traumatic stress that has hurt his ability to
perform his duties as a computer specialist and left him unable to feel
safe in his own country.

"I really feel more
comfortable downrange. I really do," said Royal, who served in Iraq four
times and in Afghanistan once. "I think I would be more comfortable
living in Iraq right now than living in the United States."

Royal escaped the gunfire only to go back into the processing center in an attempt to tackle Hasan.

"I had escaped without
being wounded," Royal said. "I got ... in the parking lot, and then I
said, 'I can't let him get away with this.' And I wasn't even thinking
that I didn't have a weapon. I just knew that I couldn't let him get
away."

The case was first set
to begin in March 2012, but it has been delayed repeatedly -- notably
over a previous judge's unsuccessful demand that the beard Hasan has
grown while in custody be forcibly shaved.

At 41, Royal is
preparing to leave the Army at the end of September. Meanwhile, he copes
with his pain and stress by taking near-scalding baths and running,
including a roughly 70-mile jaunt from Fort Hood to Austin. But he says
he can't deal with crowds any more, not even on the post.

"I don't even really go to the mall anymore," he said. "I can't take my child to Disneyland, because I can't deal with it."

As for Hasan, he said, "I have forgiven him."

"I can't hold that
grudge," Royal said. "It's just too much. I won't allow him to consume
any more energy from my life than he has already done, and so I have
released him.

"I have forgiven him completely," he said. "It's not up to me to punish him. His punishment will come."